French of the Mountains encore?

[vincent yann]

Hey Dave !

Funny example of French pidgin indeed. Interesting to
see that some excerpts are easier to understand than
others.
Some features are clearly from a form of pidgin or
remnants of dialects (eg genitive form with 'le Bon
Dieu son Coeur' for 'le coeur du Bon Dieu').
I agree with Craig that it has an obvious North
American flavour but it is not at all Quebec French
(which is not a Jargon, I think !). The French spoken
in Quebec has actually a structure similar to standard
French and Quebec speakers will see these excerpts as
pidgin as well.  Babines (plural) is indeed a
colloquial word in North American French to describe
'big lips' but I think it is here
- a place name when in singular
- a tribe/group name when in plural
Here is my proposal :

En mission chez les Babines. Petites annales de
 Marie-Immaculee (March:79-80).
- ('mission' is obviously religious here)
 "Content il est mon coeur de voir la figure a cela
 tout vous autres.
- (my heart is) happy to see your face (y'all)
Loin il a marche', vous autres pour voir, le pretre:
le
Bon Dieu son Coeur va faire charite' a vous, etc."
- the father (priest) has walked a long way to see you
and [bring] the love of God (God's heart's love)
 "C'est cher cela l'Eucharistie!  Gros Il aime vous
autres Jesus-Christ!"
- Eucharisty is dear ! (?) Jesus loves you all a lot
"Trop il y en a des sauvages a Babine et ils font
pitie' sans le [savoir?vouloir?].  (both are OK)
- there are too many pitiful savages in Babine (too
many of Babine's savages are pitiful ie without
religion probably)
Depuis Noel pas capables de voir le pretre.  Pere,
donnez-[nous] un coup de main avec le Bon Dieu sa
parole."
- since X'mas, they could not meet the priest, please
Father, give them help with God's word
 "[T]el etait le mot que
je recus un beau matin du chef des Babines."
- these are the words said to me one morning by the
chief of the Babines...

Take care, Yann


	

	
		
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